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This invention relates to the use of ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) technology by businesses. In particular, this invention relates to the use of Caller ID technology to track customer information and other marketing information.
The technology of Caller ID is potentially important to businesses because it provides important marketing information about telephone customers. However, telecommunications technology at the customer premises is generally not equipped to receive Caller ID. While single-line solutions to capturing Caller ID are plentiful, corporations and all but the smallest businesses are not able to benefit from single-line devices. In practice, most businesses own some sort of telephone switch on premises. This presents a problem because Caller ID is not received and passed along with calls in these switches. While this problem could be overcome with a new switch built to such purpose, this type of switch would have to be purchased as a replacement for an existing switch, which in all other respects is a perfectly useful and operational device.
Furthermore, Caller ID, in and of itself, is not very useful to a business. The value of a caller""s phone number to a business accrues only when data about the owner of the number is known.
Data indexed by phone number is available from a variety of sources. Phone indexed data increases in accuracy (and thus value) as multiple data sources are searched. Professional data source companies sell information based on volume discount. Access to their databases requires on-line links and special software. Programming to each data company""s interface is also a requirement. The equipment upgrades, data procurement, linking, and programming are too expensive to be implemented by most small to medium businesses.